


Wings

by cynomynn



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Fluff, M/M, diner au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-02
Updated: 2015-01-02
Packaged: 2018-03-04 21:59:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3092174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cynomynn/pseuds/cynomynn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He falls in love with the diner, and then with the boy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wings

Gabriel thinks that there’s no way in Hell’s half-acre that there is a more disgusting diner than the Golden Wings in Sioux Falls, South Dakota (famous for its’ revolting buffalo wild wings). The floor is so tacky with the detritus of meals past that it seems to grab his shoes. The jukebox in the corner looks like it hasn’t played anything more recent than “What’s New Pussycat?” and the green neon lights on it are out. The burger he ordered was soggy, and cold enough that the grease had congealed on the plate. To top all that off, when he came in 25 minutes before closing time on a balmy summer Tuesday, he’s pretty sure that he heard the head cook and that waitress who obnoxiously called him “sweetie” having sex in the kitchen (if it could even be called that), which has really got to violate at least 20 health codes. Maybe even more.

Gabriel falls in love with it immediately, weird public sex be damned.

Well, he doesn’t love the décor. That needs work. Or the menu, because _god_. Or the employees (ew). He thanks the universe for the FOR SALE BY OWNER sign in the parking lot. He’s got nowhere else to go, he’s tired of driving with no destination (tired _so tired_ like hes eighty years old but he shouldn’t feel that way christ hes only _26_ ), he could do worse than owning a diner in South Dakota. Hell, he’s a culinary school dropout with maybe a hundred bucks to his name. According to his father, at least, there wasn’t any room to go farther down into the “pit you dug yourself into, you goddamn disgrace.”

He buys the place a week later with the exact amount of cash obtained from selling one “well-loved” Ford Taurus and one beautifully played poker game. Really, the sheriff hadn’t known what hit her.

The first thing Gabriel does is fire everyone, especially the head cook and that waitress. They could go do their public display of grossness on their own dime. Second, he sends the jukebox to the sheriff, whose 17 year old daughter is said to be a “restoration whiz,” and who threatened Gabriel with handcuffs for cheating at cards, which a) he absolutely denies doing, and b) is apparently a punishable crime in Sioux Falls.

***

He sleeps in the diner the first night. It’s quieter than the Motel 6 (it was the doors slamming at 3am that really got to him. The place creaks and groans; it’s speaking to him in the language particular to older buildings. Moonlight shines off the metallic kitchen equipment and he smiles before turning over on his air mattress. He’ll have to do something about the frankly offensive amount of chrome eventually.

***

Two weeks after he sells the restored antique jukebox, an older, drunk-looking dude in a baseball cap and a younger man dressed like John Travolta circa 1978 smash the back window in with a brick. Gabriel would have read the guys the riot act, except that he had been planning to replace the window anyway. Convenient, really.

The next morning, another guy, this one looking sheepish and more than a little like a kicked puppy dog, says, “Sorry my uncle smashed your window. Well, it might have been my brother. Neither of them can remember. They’re drunken degenerates.”

To which Gabriel replies, “No problem.” (oh great Gabriel thats the first thing you say to him _no problem_ so eloquent why are you so _stupid_ )

The kid (even though he can’t be more than 5 years younger than Gabriel, he looks like a puppy) offers to help clean up in lieu of payment. Gabriel takes one look at the ragged, threadbare edges of the guy’s Stanford hoodie and agrees.

Stanford (that’s what Gabriel calls him in his head, they haven’t given names yet and Gabriel feels too flustered to ask) knows his way around a broom. They talk about the weather, and what’s going on in town, and how Gabriel actually likes living in the little apartment center down the road, even though the unit above his smells like beef jerky and weed and he can hear Bob Marley playing through the ceiling, and all other manner of small-talk type things (Gabriel carefully evades the ‘so, where are you from?’) It only takes two hours to clean up the glass shards and dust, but they end up taking a coffee break that lasts for the rest of the day. Stanford has a motor mouth, and Gabriel is happy just to listen.

“My name’s Sam, by the way.” the man says when they’re finally kicked out of the coffee shop.

“Gabriel,” says Gabriel, as they shake hands and part ways.

***

He doesn’t expect to see Sam again, but when he unlocks the front door of the diner in the morning, there he stands, holding two steaming coffees and one jelly-filled donut.

“Caught you staring at one of these yesterday,” Sam says as he hands Gabriel the donut and a coffee. “Janna’s makes great donuts, you’ll love it.”

“Thanks.” Says Gabriel, having already shoved most of the still-warm confection down his throat. Amazing.

Sam helps him tear up the cracked burgundy linoleum flooring. It’s hot as dog’s breath because Gabriel hasn’t figured out the thermostat yet, and Sam takes off his hoodie and _good God_. In addition to being long, tan, and handsome, Sam is built like some sort of Greek statue. Sam does most of the work; Gabriel is too busy staring at the sliver of skin that’s exposed every time the kid bends over to grab more flooring.

The next day, they rip out the fraying booths. Actually, they get rid of every goddamn thing that isn’t nailed down to the floor, and then some. Gabriel scrubs the kitchen of every speck of grease he can find while Sam, the giant, lugs out broken chandeliers that Gabriel couldn’t reach.

They paint the walls, the ceilings, even the picnic tables out front. Gabriel reshelves the glass display in the front and buys a rotating pie dish as a joke. Sam laughs when he sees it rotating on the freshly-painted counter, pie-less. More importantly, he keeps coming back, every day, with two coffees and one donut, and Gabriel starts to think that if Sam hadn’t come along, then he would’ve given up on this whole diner business within the first week.

The day they start work on the new menus, Sam comes in with two coffees, a donut, and a black eye. “Don’t worry about it. It’s nothing.”

“Well, I suppose we can’t all be as graceful as yours truly.” Gabriel says, covered in bread flour and eyeing Sam skeptically.

But subtlety is not Gabriel’s forte, and Sam notices the staring. “I just fell down the stairs, is all. Like I said, don’t worry about it.”

But Gabriel does not believe him. Gabriel doesn’t ask more questions; instead, he tells Sam about how he and his mom used to cook together when Gabriel was little: cookies and cakes when he was tiny and more complicated dishes when he got older, and how Gabriel is no good with food that isn’t dessert. The smell of his mother’s meatloaf cooking unevenly in their 20 year old oven accompanies the memories. He sends Sam home with all the sample food they fix that day. They don’t bring up the black eye again.

***

Gabriel wakes up no earlier than noon on weekends. It’s tradition; an unspoken rule. But today, it’s six fucking am on Saturday and Sam shows up with a cute, ringleted blonde in tow. Gabriel has time to grunt and scrub his hair through his bird’s nest hair before the blonde’s presence hits him like a shot of tequila after a day of not eating. (oh no this must be his girlfriend god damn it god damn it why did i get my hopes up god damn it)

“This is Jo,” Sam smiles, “And she’s gonna help us sort out the diner.”

Gabriel does not smile as he shakes Jo’s hand. As a matter of fact, he feels hollow, like a giant moth had come down, jammed its’ weird little tube-tongue into his skull, and sucked everything out of him. “Help with the diner?”

“Damn straight,” says Jo. “That diner has been serving shitty food for twenty years, my mother is making ‘get a job or get the hell out of my house’ noises, and I don’t know anything better than I know restaurants. Well, except maybe how to cut logs into perfect thirds, but that’s a story for another time.” And Sam’s girlfriend plops down on Gabriel’s couch and pulls out two of those shiny college-paper binding thingies and a pen.

“Sam told me how you’re remodeling everything, and doing new menus, and I thought that we could work on pricing today, which means we need to figure out where you’re gonna buy all of your veggies and meat and shit.” Jo has got a whole spread of suppliers nearby, sorted by pricing and by organic-or-not.

“I thought I could just buy everything at Food Lion.” Gabriel says to the bookshelf behind Jo sheepishly. So he hadn’t gotten to the business management part of his culinary degree. Nobody can fault him for being shit at math.

Jo gives Sam a look that says, _I didn’t know there were people that dumb on the planet_ , and says, “No, you stupid fuck. You cannot buy all of your supplies at Food Lion.” And Gabriel doesn’t care that she’s Sam’s girlfriend, and she’s barged in at the ass crack of dawn, she’s hired on the spot.

***

Everything is done far more quickly than Gabriel had ever thought possible. Jo is practically a god with numbers, and a whiz at bullying people into supplying the diner with raw ingredients on the cheap. Jo puts up ads in the local paper for 25 cents. _Now Hiring Servers, contact Gabriel Milton_.

Sam smiles his lopsided smile while looking at the ad and Gabriel invites them for dinner. “We deserve to celebrate,” he grins, “And hell, I want to pay for your food for once, Sam!”

“Nah, I can’t,” apologizes Jo, “Mom and Dad are out on a date tonight, and I’ve got the house all to myself. I’ve got a date with the master bath and _Harry Potter_.” Gabriel has gathered that Jo’s parents do not go out often, and Jo snaps up any opportunity to be alone at home like a drowning man sucks in air.

“Oh, well, I guess we can do it another—”

Sam interrupts with “Hold on, shortstack! I want Mexican food, and if you’re paying, then we can go to the fancy place on Asbury.”

Gabriel’s heart flutters just a little bit. “Okay, but I’m driving.”

Sam agrees, and they eat at the fancy little Mexican food place on Asbury, _Los Tres Portrillos_. The power goes out in the middle of their dinner. They laugh, and Gabriel thinks that yeah, he could be happy here in Sioux Falls. Even if Sam is dating Jo. Gabriel will get over his childish crush sooner or later.

Sam walks him all the way back to his apartment. “Would you like to come in? I’ve got…um, instant coffee. I think.”

“Nah, I should probably be getting back.” Sam smiles down at him, his eyes crinkling at the edges. Gabriel is about to say something (i had a good time thanks see you later champ) when Sam swoops down and kisses him. It’s a chaste little thing, closed-mouthed and earnest, shy and delightful, but Gabriel is so surprised that he doesn’t kiss back. (what what what what what what is happening) “Gabriel, that was okay, right?”

“What about Jo?” Gabriel asks, bewildered.

“What about Jo?” Sam repeats, almost as confused as Gabriel.

“Aren’t you and her – you know?” Gabriel is close to tears. He’d thought, for maybe a second, that he could be happy pining away, but now even that had been taken from him.

“Me and _Jo_?” Sam laughs, “Dude, we’ve known each other since we were in diapers. That kind of ruins any chance at future dating. Not that we didn’t try it out for a while, but…we’re like siblings.”

Sam steps in close, towering over Gabriel. Gabriel’s back bumps his front door. “Now that that’s cleared up…” Sam’s face is two inches from his own, and his bear paw hands are resting on the doorjamb, trapping Gabriel against his front door, and he smells like the caramel flan they’d shared for dessert, “Can I kiss you for real?”

“Does a bear shit in the woods?” Sam smiles that looney smile of his, and Gabriel has to grin back because damn, that boy is like sunshine.


End file.
